El Remanso Blog

El Remanso Lodge recommended by the January 2010 edition of Travel & Leisure. The prestigious magazine recommended our lodge as an ideal destination to spend a vacation in Costa Rica! Come visit us and find out why!

We are very happy to hear that we are, in fact, the happiest people on the planet! At least, that's the result of a study of the "World Database of Happiness", compiled by a Dutch sociologist on the basis of answers to surveys by Gallup and others. Costa Rica ranks on top of the 148 countries that participated in the study!

El Remanso Lodge participates in the local wildcat project, led by biologists Aida Bustamante and Ricardo Moreno. Weekly presentations to our guests show the work of these passionate conservationists who work hard to protect the endangered cats on the Osa Peninsula. As part of their study, pictures are taken with camera traps all over the Osa Peninsula to monitor the population of jaguars, pumas, ocelots, margays and jaguarundis. El Remanso has purchased 4 of these camera traps that are installed on the trail system of the lodge.

Thanks to the quick eyes and good heart of the wonderful Van der Meer family, 54 sea turtle eggs have gotten a second chance for survival. While strolling along the beautiful deserted Pacific beach at El Remanso, Mia was the first to spot what looked like a bunch of bright white ping pong balls: a turtle nest had been uncovered by the force of an unexpected turn in the course of the creek!

Filled with joy and great family energy, El Remanso staff and guests celebrated a very merry “Green” Christmas (to quote our recent guest John Frykman) in the southern rainforest of Costa Rica. While some of our guests decided to experience a small-town Costa Rican Christmas mass in Puerto Jiménez, others chose to spend the night playing games and relaxing in the restaurant. We all had a wonderful dinner on Christmas Eve and then a delicious turkey and buffet on Christmas day.

Looking forward to a wonderful new year in the rainforest of the Osa Peninsula, and celebrating the hard work from last season, El Remanso held its annual staff party this past weekend. This is the one and only day of the year when the usually very peaceful main restaurant is transformed into a wild open buffet-karaoke-dance floor! Our marvelous guests: Luke, Raf, Amelia and Roger joined in with us on the fun performing “A Hard Day’s Night”, and dancing to the talented voice of our masseuse Laura and our driver Gerardo.

El Remanso participated in the native plants workshop organized by the local organization "Friends Of The Osa" and given by ProNativa. The workshop focused on the need of using non-exotic plants in the local gardens. Different aspects from landscaping, which native or endemic plants to use and how to collect the seeds were discussed.

El Remanso will be opening again tomorrow, November 1st, after a 4 weeks of being closed doing maintenance work and some upgrades of our installations. Today we finished a 4-day long training on First Aid and Basic CPR with all of the El Remanso staff as well as some participants from the local community. This highly useful training has been a big success and everybody enjoyed the training provided by the very experienced Marvin Palma. With a practical approach, the El Remanso staff learned emergency procedures for different types of injuries as well as evacuation of injured people.

Hello! My name is Eduardo Mendoza, I’m a student for Natural Resource Management, I’m 24 years old and am proud to be Mexican. I’ve been fortunate to have lived my whole life in close contact with nature, especially being from one of the most nature-rich states in my country: Tabasco, where there is an enormous treasure of flora and fauna.

My name is Marigel Campos. I’m from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. I am currently in the 9th semester for my degree in Natural Resource Management at the Marist University in Merida. I love everything related to nature, especially the ocean. My favorite things to do are diving and going out with my friends and family. My favorite animal is the dolphin!

It’s the end of the Green Season. The rains have poured over the Osa for the last month, leaving the forest blooming with new greens, new croaks, newborn little monkeys ready to start their recently acquired life’s adventure clinging determinedly to their mother’s fur as she swings carelessly through the tallest trees in search of tropical fruits and insects under the light of a new sun-filled season. November offers an unforgettable rainforest experience without excessive rain.

Today we released a fer de lance viper (bothrops asper) that we found yesterday next to one of our parking lots. For safety reasons our guide Gerardo caught it and after showing it to our guests, brought it to an area of the forest where no trails or cabins are situated. Watch him give some interesting facts on these snakes while he releases the animal!

Have you ever dreamed about living in a tropical rainforest? Can you imagine yourself waking up to the sound of howler monkeys, toucans and scarlet macaws? Would you love to learn all you can about sustainable tourism and running a small business focused on the preservation of the most biodiverse jungle on the planet? Come do an internship with us! We will teach you all we can about sustainability and the Costa Rican rainforest, give you a comfortable place to sleep and all your meals in exchange for a few months of work with us as part of our miscellaneous team. You will love it!

El Remanso has been an active supporter of the local wildcat study led by biologists Aida Bustamante and Ricardo Moreno. The study which started in 2006 focuses on the endangered species like the jaguars, pumas and ocelots. Weekly presentations at the lodge give our guests the opportunity to have more information of the work of these hardworking environementalists. This year, El Remanso has purchased 4 camera traps which will constinuosly be installed in our trail system. As you can see below, after only 15 days, the first pictures show peccaries, coatis, tayras and luckily an ocelot!

Today the El Remanso staff, together with some of our guests visited the annual "Fiestas de San Juan", the traditional local "fiesta" with bull riding and other competitions. The last day of this one-week long party brought some of the best rodeo riders of the country to Puerto Jiménez.[gallery]

Our resident guide Gerardo didn't expect to find the rare Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria) on the driveway of the lodge yesterday morning! These animals are primarily nocturnal creatures, sleeping during the day and starting their activity at dusk. Their name comes from the shine of microscopic ridges on their scales which act like prisms to refract light into rainbows, thus the name Rainbow Boa. [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

Today was the last day of the annual yoga retreat of "Adventure Yoga Retreats" at El Remanso. A week of daily yoga classes in our yoga deck, surfing and enjoying the surrounding wildlife has come to an end. Thank you for being here and we hope you had a terrific time at the lodge!